The Mars Colony

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

...It is highly unlikely that people will ever manage to destroy this planet, let alone another one.

One of my favorite SG:A bits.

Col. Shepperd: What are you working on anyway?
Col. Shepperd: You'll be surprised to hear that removing a planet from the database is actually a lot of work.
Col. Shepperd: I thought you'd be pretty good at that by now.
Dr. Mckay: You just can't resist bringing up the fact that I once accidentally destroyed a couple of planets, can you?
Col. Shepperd: It was an entire solar system.
Dr. Mckay: You want to do the honors?
Col. Shepperd: No, you go ahead.
Dr. Mckay: All right, M7R-227, you were a constant pain in the ass. It's good to see you go.
>Mckay presses button and planet vanishes<
Col. Shepperd: If only it was that easy in real life.
Dr. Mckay: Area 51 is working on it.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Oberon

"You ain't in Kansas anymaar..."

Yeah, I'm with Carling, it's impossible to kill this planet, well certainly at our primitive level of technology, but we can certainly make our lives on it uncomfortable...well, for some people anyway.

People make their lives uncomfortable for themselves, nothing we can do about that. The poorest, most wretched nations in the world are the way they are because they just refuse to trade freely. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Some nations want to trade freely but Western nations keep them out with tariffs and quotas. We should definitely do something about that.

I'm more concerned about resource shortages than I am climate change if I'm honest, but there's not a great deal one can do about it, not as a singular being and certainly not in the planets fractured socio-political state.

Define "fractured". I'm of the firm belief that order generated without design will far outstrip the plans that men consciously contrive. I think it's great that there are billions of individuals on this planet with different beliefs and needs and wants and ideologies, so long as they don't try to force them upon others. Our differences are what make us so successful. We trade and commune and work because of our differences. Where we are permitted, a million of us working to accomplish seperate ends can build a society in a matter of days. Where we are not permitted, a million of us working together can build a dam or something, in like, 5 years. Ask Western China.

I often do ponder how mankind would face a large scale hostile extraterrestrial event, be it an asteroid or an alien. Would the planets governments band together to try to combat it or would they all just work to further their own objectives. Sometimes mankind can be so brilliant...and yet at other times it can be so dumb.

I think you already know the answer to that. Nothing unites people like an external threat. In the case of a hostile extraterrestrial event, you can bet that the whole planet would be out for alien blood.

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

One of my favorite SG:A bits.

What's SG:A? Stargate.. something? I'm not current on any sci-fi shows other than Firefly.



edit- Thanks krashkart! Now I just need to go find out what Stargate has to do with Atlantis. I hope it has submarines

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

What's SG:A? Stargate.. something? I'm not current on any sci-fi shows other than Firefly.

Stargate Atlantis

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

What's SG:A? Stargate.. something? I'm not current on any sci-fi shows other than Firefly.

So the Lcpl is a Browncoat! All your Libertarian ranting suddenly makes sense...

Oh yea


For Firefly.

...I'm a Jayne Hat wearing Browncoat too!

Now I just need to go find out what Stargate has to do with Atlantis. I hope it has submarines

Check out Episode 214 "Grace Under Pressure" and 318 "Submersion".

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

So the Lcpl is a Browncoat! All your Libertarian ranting suddenly makes sense...

Oh yea

Oh yeah!
Steve got me started on it, now I can't stop watching it over and over. And over.

Check out Episode 214 "Grace Under Pressure" and 318 "Submersion".

I'll see if I can't find it on hulu after I get done moving. Man, I hate moving.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

Oh yeah!

OH YEAH!!

Damn it now look what we did...

Great going there Lcpl...

[Skybird]

My image of Mars was seriously influenced by this book that I read as a small boy of 12 years, or 13:



Robots! Many robots! Laser beams! Jungles of meat-eating tentacle swinging plants! Ghost towns full of computers! One man all alone! Pure Magic for a boy of that age. I read it in one rush (like most books at that time), and could not sleep for two nights, for i was so excited and my imagination ran amok.

Ray Bradbury writing about a boy who has read this book - that would be something!

[Oberon]

People make their lives uncomfortable for themselves, nothing we can do about that. The poorest, most wretched nations in the world are the way they are because they just refuse to trade freely. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Some nations want to trade freely but Western nations keep them out with tariffs and quotas. We should definitely do something about that.

True, true, I cannot deny this, there are certainly quite a few nations out there who are pretty good at shooting themselves in the foot, Zimbabwe and the DPRK come immediately to mind. Likewise there are some who would do more if they had more to do it with, sorting the wheat from the chaff is the foreign aid departments job and I'm glad its not mine. Of course, there is the risk that nations will come to exist wholly on foreign aid and never walk on their own two feet, I think this is another problem which is prevalent in some countries, particularly in Africa.
However, one problem which keeps cropping up in my mind is the birth rates and death rates and the widening gap between the two. Don't get me wrong, it's lovely to have your friends and family around for longer (in most cases) however at the same time there is an extra burden on resources, particularly in an aging population as Europe is finding out now. So, that takes resources from other areas and puts it into caring for the elderly, and that's good...but then you've got to encourage people to have babies to your population growth from going negative (and your tax income with it) so you've got to put more resources into child care...because you need your parents to keep working to keep the economy going, so that's more resources in...and that's just things like financial and work hours. When you factor in food supplies and water supplies as well, then things start getting a bit tighter.
What do I think it will mean? Well...quite simply the richer nations will continue on as normal but with higher food prices and the poorer nations will have mass famines. So, not much change there.
Then of course, there's the possibility of Peak Oil...I don't know precisely where to stand on that, but it's going to run out at some point, and that won't be such a great time if we haven't developed alternatives to an extent that they can be phased in as crude oil is phased out.

Define "fractured". I'm of the firm belief that order generated without design will far outstrip the plans that men consciously contrive. I think it's great that there are billions of individuals on this planet with different beliefs and needs and wants and ideologies, so long as they don't try to force them upon others. Our differences are what make us so successful. We trade and commune and work because of our differences. Where we are permitted, a million of us working to accomplish seperate ends can build a society in a matter of days. Where we are not permitted, a million of us working together can build a dam or something, in like, 5 years. Ask Western China.

Our differences make us so successful and also what make us so conflicted. Of course, this is inevitable on a planet where the fittest survive at the expense of the unfit, however it can also slow things down in bureaucracy and it can lead to corruption due to each man trying to profit himself over others.

I'm no communist, I used to be quite left, but I'm more central now because I've seen how communism falls apart when exposed to reality, but some parts of intense competition is damaging whilst the others are indeed beneficial.

I think you already know the answer to that. Nothing unites people like an external threat. In the case of a hostile extraterrestrial event, you can bet that the whole planet would be out for alien blood.

True...although if they were smart enough they'd play us off against each other.

What's SG:A? Stargate.. something? I'm not current on any sci-fi shows other than Firefly.

I'll be in my bunk.



I...I started so well in typing this but it's kind of faltered out. I blame the weather...too friggin hot for this islander, where's that fabled British rain gone? But I do see where you're coming from UnderseaLcpl, but you cannot deny that mankind can be very shortsighted...but thankfully, hopefully, now we can see a change with people thinking more about their actions and how they will effect their children, be it economically or be it environmentally.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Skybird

My image of Mars was seriously influenced by this book that I read as a small boy of 12 years, or 13:

Robots! Many robots! Laser beams! Jungles of meat-eating tentacle swinging plants! Ghost towns full of computers! One man all alone! Pure Magic for a boy of that age. I read it in one rush (like most books at that time), and could not sleep for two nights, for i was so excited and my imagination ran amok.

Ray Bradbury writing about a boy who has read this book - that would be something!

Awesome, that was about the age I was when I read War of the Worlds. Still one of my favourite books.

[MH]

I guess that if there was same motivation in NASA now as it was in 60s and 70s humanity could reach Mars and beyond.
As for now there is no will and money for space programs.

As a SF fun -i kind of hoped we would live in more exiting age for space exploration.

Who cares about some rocks in space.
No life no votes.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Awesome, that was about the age I was when I read War of the Worlds. Still one of my favourite books.

"Boje Weltraum-Abenteuer", a series of eight books from a publisher of youth books - true classics of youth literature in Germany, and German science fiction. Mark Brandis also is such a classic series, aiming at teenagers and younger adults. It is popular until today, although the series is from the late 70s and 80s.

German readers, heads up! the Mark Brandis books, all 30+, are in the process of getting republished since some time, the first half of the series is already available again! I have bought and read "Bordbuch Delta VII" some months ago - that was great fun and brought back many memories! they also have turned the books into radioplays of accustically absolutely outstanding quality - the scenery sounds like you used to know it from movies.

http://62.75.219.232/ernstwurdack-s3...88cfbae9b6f6f9

[August]

This is the series that turned me on to Mars as a kid:

[Sailor Steve]

I didn't really get into Burroughs until I was a teenager, and not the John Carter series until my twenties. When I read the part where Barsoomian women lay eggs I thought "How cool - the never lose their figures!"

But then I was married to a woman who had two kids the human way and didn't change a bit.

[Platapus]

First we must find the atmosphereum.


"Amish Terrarium. Must find Amish terrarium"

(one of my favourite movies)

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Such a shame, but I guess it makes a bit of sense for humanity to try and solve its problems on one planet before it starts messing with another, lest we become a race of space locusts, wrecking one planet after another in an attempt to keep our civilisation alive.

I have to disagree with you on this Oberon. If its true that entropy is going to slowly destroy the universe then I think we should go out and consume as much resources as possible and "empire build". Spread, propagate and consume because somewhere in a vast Human Empire someone might discover a way out and we might have the resources to accomplish it.

Every planet we colonize or space habitat we build is like a mini-"Foundation" dedicated to this effort.